Pricked by the Rose
by DohiWaya
Summary: James Summers, the son of an American Sailor stationed in Britain is deemed to have magical prowess and is offered a spot at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy. This turns his world inside out, and the friends he makes there do nothing to change that, especially the perplexing Rose Weasley.


**First chapter of a fic that I hope will flourish. It was the first fic that I wrote for the Harry Potter fandom, and so I have decided to go through it and bring some refinement to it.**

**Please review, even if it is to simply tell me that I suck, because reviews help authors to grow.**

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It was August 1st when the odd-man with the letter arrived. My parents didn't know whether it was a prank or not. My dad had just been transferred by the Navy as part of the regular schedule of deployments. We had been forced to leave the states, and we ended up in England. When this occurred, my parents had started to look for a school that I could attend. They were going to send me to a public school until Mr. Longbottom came by with the letter.

For years my parents had known I was different. Things happened around me that just weren't normal. My dad, Jack Summers, finally decided that it wasn't a joke, and that I had in fact been invited to join a school for those gifted in the magical arts. With that decided, he invited Mr. Longbottom in to let him speak to us.

"Your son is a wizard. Believe it or not, a wizard coming from a family of muggles, non-magical people like you, isn't rare. In fact one of the best witches I know was born to a muggle family," Mr. Longbottom explained to my parents. I simply sat there observing him. He was wearing robes, and they were an earthy green color. In fact, he even smelled kind of earthy. It was like he spent all his time with plants or outdoors. I was on this train of thought when he turned to me.

"James, you are a wizard, and from what I understand, you have every chance to be just as good as my friend Hermione is. I know this is quite sudden, but it is customary in the magical world to start your education in magic at the age of 11." He gave me a reassuring smile as he spoke. I was already starting to like this man who had shown up out of what seemed like thin air. He was very likeable, and it seemed as if all he wanted to do was help me. My mother, Heather Summers, seemed at ease around this man, and that helped me. It told me that she trusted him.

"Where will I find all of these things? I don't have any of your money either, assuming the magical world has its own currency. Could I convert muggle money into magical money?" I asked all these questions as I studied the list of things I would need if I were to attend this school, Hogwarts the letter called it. It seemed like a legitimate boarding school. It even had a coat of arms, and it was a fantastic one at that. It had four quarters each one with a different animal. They were what looked like a Raven, a Snake, what I assumed was a lion or what I thought a Griffin should look like, and a Badger. I knew the badger right away; we had hunted them sometimes back in the U.S. They were an animal known to be fiercely loyal to their families. This line of thought almost caused me to miss what Mr. Longbottom told me next.

"You'll come with me to Diagon Alley. It is a place where we can buy everything on that list. And yes we do have different money than the muggle world does. You can change your money over to ours at the magical bank in Diagon Alley called Gringotts. It is run by Goblins…very frugal creatures they are." Mr. Longbottom answered all of my questions with a calm tone. He seemed to be enjoying the fact that I was asking questions. He almost seemed to read my mind as he said, "You remind me so much of Hermione. Muggle-born, intelligent, and always asking or answering questions."

I wasn't sure if I liked being compared to a girl, but he did say that she was a very talented witch, so that alleviated my uneasy feeling. I always wanted to be the best. I strived to be the smartest, but I was also a fairly big kid due to playing football constantly. I was an odd mixture of muscles and brains, and I knew it

"Okay, when do we go?" I asked him. My parents realized that this meant I was intent on going, and they seemed to give their assent after a short glance between the pair of them. I looked back to Mr. Longbottom as I waited for an answer.

"We can go right this instant if your parents don't mind. I'll have you back before night time, they can be assured of it." He responded as he looked to them for permission.

"Okay. James can go." My dad said without much hesitation. Then, he motioned for us to wait for a moment. He left the room, and when he returned he came back with a great deal of money. "I was going to use this to pay for your education this year, so now you can use it for the supplies necessary." He proceeded to hand me the money and sit back down.

"Great! Come now James…we have a lot to get done." He says as he motioned for me to stand next to him. I do so, and he instructed, "Hold on tight to me, and don't let go." I do so, and then I feel a tug and we are sucked into oblivion. Before I knew it, we were back out in the daylight, on a street full of people in robes, and lined with fantastic storefronts.

"Our first stop will be to Gringotts, the wizarding bank, to change over that money your wonderful father gave you. Then, we can begin our shopping." Mr. Longbottom said cheerfully. He seemed a very confident man to me. It was but a few minutes before we arrived at the bank. It was a stunning building, and it had a very imposing architecture. When we went through the doors, I noticed an inscription, but I don't pay it much attention.

"It's a warning to those who would try to rob Gringotts. This is protected by many spells, and as such it would be folly to try. There have only been two successful break-ins in the history of the bank. Both were done by very strong wizards or group of wizards." He explained to me as we passed through the doors.

We approached a goblin sitting behind a desk. It's long fingers were holding a gold coin, which it was scrutinizing under the hand microscope tool that jewelers use. He didn't seem pleased with what he was seeing. He looked up at Mr. Longbottom, and then down at me.

"Leprechaun gold…entirely worthless!" He said to Mr. Longbottom as he showed him the coin. He then put the coin back, and continued to say, "Another muggle-born?" The goblin asked the question in an almost scathing tone. I got the feeling that goblins don't necessarily like interacting with humans much.

"Yes. We would appreciate it if you would exchange his muggle currency for him." Mr. Longbottom returned rather respectfully. I wondered if it was just his nature, or that he was trying to make the goblin more comfortable. Either way it didn't seem to matter, because the goblin still seemed just as cold as before. The goblin gestured for the money, and I handed it over. He fliped through it rather quickly, then turned around.

"Ungok…take this and exchange it for the proper currency." As soon as he shouted the name, another goblin appeared at his side and took the money. He then left, and the goblin in front of us turned to face us again. He then took out a list, and flipped through many pages. He stopped for a second and examined a page with great scrutiny, then shook his head in disgust and continued on. Eventually he stopped, and muttered something to himself in what I can only guess is another language.

"Gobbledegook, it's their language." Mr. Longbottom whispered to me. I simply nodded my head as the goblin does the same. He seemed to have found what he was looking for. He put the list away, and went back to scrutinizing more of the coins in the pile. Occasionally he would gain a look of disgust and drop the coin in a bin next to him.

After what seemed like ages, the goblin, Ungok, finally returns with a rather large bag of what I assume to be the coins. He hands the bag to the goblin in front of us and waddles off. The bag is in turn handed to Mr. Longbottom, who handed it to me to look at. I opened the bag and peered inside. In it were a stunning amount of coins of three different types. One type was gold, one silver, and the last, bronze. I closed the bag up, and Mr. Longbottom thanked the goblin before we left.

After leaving the bank, he led me to a bench where we sat down. He took the bag from me and fetched out one of each type of coin. He proceeded to tell me, "This is a gold Galleon, this is a silver sickle, and this is a bronze Knut." He brandished them in order as he spoke their names. "There are 17 Sickles to a Galleon, and 29 Knuts to a Sickle." I nodded, that's pretty simple. That meant there were 493 Knuts in a Galleon. I'm pretty good at math, so that was fairly easy for me to figure out.

After the monetary lesson, we headed off to a shop to get robes. The shop was called Madame Malkin's, and the lady inside seemed nice enough as she measured me. She fitted the robes very quickly, and then I paid her, thanked her, and left with Mr. Longbottom.

That was when he took me to an odd little shop called Olivander's. I had heard people in the Alley talking about what a shame it was that Mr. Ollivander had retired, but that he had left a very capable relative in charge of the store. I entered the store, not sure what to expect. When I entered, a very skinny man with slicked-back black hair turned around behind the counter.

"First-year I presume? And not from a wizarding family I grasp." He said with a small smile as I nodded. He moved around the counter towards me, and shook my hand as he introduced himself, "I am yet another Ollivander. My great uncle taught me everything he knew about wandlore, and I now take his place in charge of this shop. Now, let's get you measured. What is your wand arm?" With this question I was a bit confused, I'd never owned a wand, so I didn't know what arm to raise. I simply acted logically and raised my dominant arm, my right one.

"Good. Good. Let's see here." Suddenly he flourished his wand towards me and a tape measure appeared. It starts taking measurements on its own, and the shop keeper went behind the counter to rummage through many shelves full of boxes. He finally grabbed one from the shelf and said, "Maple, 10 inches, phoenix feather core and brittle." He started to hand it to me, but he quickly rethought and put it back before starting his search again.

He came upon another one he appeared willing to try. "Ah…an American wood…maybe…" He took it out and brought it over. He opened the box while he spoke, "Cyprus, 14 ¼ inches, dragon heartstring, pliable but sturdy. Here…give it a wave." He handed me the wand then demonstrated in a rather eccentric manner the way to wave the wand. As the wand touched my skin, a kind of warmth crept along my body and I gave it a wave. Multi-colored sparks flew from the tip, and this new Ollivander happily hummed to himself what sounded like God Save the Queen. While he hummed, he walked back behind the counter to an old register.

"That will be 8 Galleons please." He told me before he continued humming. I handed him the money, he thanked me, started humming again, and I left with Mr. Longbottom.

"He seemed a bit eccentric." I said to the amusement of Mr. Longbottom. He must have known I was going to say that.

"He's a wizard, and an Ollivander nonetheless. If there is one thing you can expect from Ollivanders it is a bit of eccentricity, but every brilliant mind is eccentric in one manner or another." He told me. I accepted this, because it was quite true. Then, I started to wonder if I was actually as brilliant as I thought. I didn't think I had any eccentricities, but, who ever really thinks of themselves as eccentric?

After that, we went to a variety of different shops and gathered all the required supplies and books. After we had acquired everything I needed, Mr. Longbottom asked, "Now, is there anything you saw that you wanted, but wasn't included on the list? Like a pet?" I had really wanted almost everything I saw, including a pet of some kind, but a cat just wasn't something I wanted seeing as I was a dog person. I could get an owl, but I wasn't sure about that. It would be difficult to take care of the owl while at home and not at the school. There was also a broom, but I decided against it, because first-years weren't allowed to have brooms, so there was no point.

I finally decided to reply, "Well, I think I'm just fine with what is necessary for now. Maybe I can come back sometime if I need something or want something else." Mr. Longbottom smiled at my honesty, and we left Diagon Alley. When we got home, he left me at my house with all my school stuff.

"I look forward to seeing you this year in class Mr. Summers. I think you will do just fine." With that he left. I realized after he had spoken that he was actually a teacher at the school. I quickly started to wonder what class he taught. I did this as I moved all my stuff up to my room. There I put it in a trunk that we had found in the attic. It was an interesting old trunk, and it seemed to fit well with the magical items. After that I found the letter Mr. Longbottom had brought, and I looked at the list of classes again. There were lots of classes, but I felt only one of them fit the man who had just taken me to Diagon Alley. He had to be the Herbology professor; he smelled so much like the earth that there was very little doubt in my mind about this.

Over the next month, I read every single book I had been required to buy. Each one was fantastic, and filled with many different spells. I tried out a couple of them with my wand, but only the safe ones like Lumos. This spell was put to work quite often so I could read late at night without my parents knowing.

By the time the day came for me to go to King's Cross Station, I felt content with my knowledge of magic. I felt like I would be able to keep up with the other students who had the privilege to be born into magical families. When we arrived at the Station, I loaded all my belongings onto a cart and started inside with my parents. When we reached Platform 9 I told them goodbye, and they left. My father didn't have any qualms with doing so, because he believed I could take care of myself after all the years living on military bases. My mother however took a lot longer to convince to let me go alone.

I sat there for a short while wondering how to get to Platform 9 3/4. I didn't know what to do. It seemed odd, but then again we are talking about the platform for the train that would ultimately take me to the magical school he had been looking forward to going to the last month.

Finally, I heard a couple talking about their first child going off to Hogwarts. They had been talking rather quietly, but I heard them nonetheless, and I looked around. I quickly noticed a man and woman with a daughter who was pushing a cart with stuff on it. They also seemed to have a son who was sticking close to his mother.

"Excuse me. Did you say that you have a child going to Hogwarts?" I asked fairly quietly. I had never been the greatest around people. Despite my size and smarts, I tended to be a little shy. The first reaction came from the man with the red hair. His eyes widened a bit as if he was surprised someone had overheard them. Thankfully his wife realized that I was just trying to get to the Platform, and she gave me a little smile.

"Yes. This will be Rose's first year. I assume it'll be your first year too?" She answered me warmly.

"I'm James. Yes it is…but I'm muggle-born, so…" I trailed off. I'm pretty sure they got the gist of what I was trying to say without me actually saying it. The woman's eyes seemed to brighten at this. I assumed she was either fascinated by me being muggle-born, or she was also muggle-born. As it turned out I was right about both.

"Don't worry about it…I'm muggle-born too. Just ask my husband…I was the top of my year…you'll do just fine." She said in a kind tone. Then, her husband chuckled.

"This takes me back. It's just like when I met Harry all those years ago." He told his wife. Then, he turned to me and said, "She's right. Hermione was the best in our year. And…if you're wondering how to get through, just follow Rose and I." After he finished his sentence, he winked at me and walked over to Rose. Rose had the same shockingly red hair that her father did, except hers was much longer. They then walked right into the barrier between platforms and promptly disappeared. This was only slightly disturbing to me, because I'd already accepted that magic could do wonderful things.

I looked back at the woman, and what the man had called her suddenly dawned on me. My eyes widened, and I asked, "Are you the Hermione Mr. Longbottom told me about? You have to be. He was telling me how much I reminded him of you. Being that I'm muggle-born, and fairly brilliant as he put it."

She simply smiled and said, "Oh Neville…such a good friend. Yes I was the one he was talking about, and if he praised you, then I think you'll do much better than fine. You'll be fantastic. Now hurry along…you don't want to be late." I did as she said, and I walked straight through the barrier. It was more disturbing to do it than it was to watch somebody else do it.

Once on the other side, I marveled at the enormous train in front of me, all the while I moved forward. I did my best to avoid hitting anyone with my cart, but it was quite hard as there were a great deal of people on the platform. Finally I came to a door where there were not a ton of people crowded around, and I started to lift my trunk. While it was heavy, I was fairly strong, but I still couldn't move it. An older boy nearby saw I was having trouble, and he offered to help. I gladly accepted and we carried my trunk on and stowed it in a compartment where nobody was yet sitting, and where there was no other luggage. I thanked him and we both got off the train.

After I got off the train, I simply walked around the platform a bit. I was amazed at all the different people there. I was also happy to see a man who I thought was Harry Potter. According to the history books, he had defeated the most terrible wizard of all time, Voldemort, at Hogwarts years before I was born. This man had my respect…to do something as great as that, and at the age he did it, took a lot of heart.

Finally, it came time for the train to leave, and I boarded at the same door I had gone to before. While walking to the compartment with my luggage I passed many compartments that were already full. There were a lot of students going to this school, I thought. When I made it to the compartment I had put my trunk in, I noticed that it was occupied by a pair of people.

"James needs to stop bothering people…he's so nosy sometimes." This came from the girl I had been introduced to as Rose. This was obvious from her hair. Across from her was a boy with black hair. I knocked on the door frame, and they both looked at me.

"Hi James. This is Albus." Rose told me. I hadn't expected her to be so friendly to me. Even though her mom seemed nice, she had seemed rather shy.

"Hey Rose. Hello Albus. Is…is this seat taken?" I asked them as I gestured to the open area next to Rose. Both of them shook their heads and I sat down. I was glad that I had a place to sit, and with someone I had met just prior to boarding the train. It was quiet for a long time before I decided to break the silence.

"Rose, when I heard your name, the first thing that went through my mind was a quote from Shakespeare, a famous muggle writer-" I started to say. But she cut me off.

"That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet? Yeah…I know Shakespeare even though I'm not muggle-born. I'm smart." She said with a smile. She was a little cocky, competitive, and that made me smile back at her. That was when she threw a boxed candy at me. It hit the exposed skin on my arm, and gave me a small cut that started to bleed. I looked at it and smiled as a clever line came to my mind.

"Every Rose has its thorns, and it looks like I've been pricked."


End file.
